40 EMBL August 2007 &Newslettercetera of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory Council Meeting: Australia to join as associate member state Delegates at this summer’s EMBL Council meeting in Hamburg agreed that Australia will become EMBL’s first associate member state. The associate membership is planned to officially start in January next year and will initially last for seven years. Other news from the meeting includes Luxembourg’s ratification to become EMBL’s 20th full member state, the appointment of Anne Ephrussi as the new Unit Coordinator for Developmental Biology, Detlev Arendt’s promotion to Senior Scientist and much more. pages 2 and 3 New heads of units for EMBL Heidelberg Following the departure at the end of last year of Structural and Computational Biology Unit coordi- nator Luis Serrano to the Center for Genomic Regulation in Barcelona, former Deputy Head of EMBL Grenoble Christoph Müller (right) arrived at EMBL Heidelberg at the start of August to fill his shoes as Joint Coordinator alongside Peer Bork. In addition, Anne Ephrussi has been appointed as the new Unit Coordinator for Developmental Biology. Inside, both talk about their plans for the units. pages 2 and 3 EMBL-EBI throws open the doors to training facilities Next time you pay a visit to EMBL-EBI, take a look at their new IT training suite, part of the newly com- pleted East Wing. It’s where visitors will receive tuition in the EBI’s bioinformatics resources at its Genome Campus location for the first time. With 40 permanent workstations and the option to dou- ble the room’s capacity for an additional 40 laptop-based users, the state-of-the-art suite also features touchscreen audio-visual controls, window blinds and lights. A complete programme of the free train- ing on offer can now be found on the EBI’s website. page 5 Lots of brave EMBL souls took part in the Heidelbergman Thank you for the music Triathlon on 5 August and helped raise over €700 for the charity Adéquation Germany, started by Emmanuel Reynaud (left) in 2005. The money will go to the Foundation Green Heritage Fund Suriname’s Dolphin Programme, in which volunteers collect data about the wild dolphin populations in the Suriname River, and other charities. Well done to teams Adéquation, JoMaKa, EMBL Men, CellZome I, II and III, Die Drei Bacalao and single participant Lorenzo Corsini. Well done, too, to the team Swim when EMBLEM, who together with EMBL Ventures raised over you’re winning €3,500 for KiDi Ambulanter Hospizdienst, a charity for terminally ill children. Vadim Sidorovitch presents US musician Mark Kroll with a bouquet following his recital in EMBL Heidelberg’s Operon on 20 July. Mr Kroll, a member of the Boston Say hello to Expanding further Paul goes Symphony Orchestra and Professor the new Szilárd into chemical back to Emeritus of Boston University, treated the audience to Baroque and classical pieces on librarians 4 7 biology 8 the classroom the piano and harpsichord. EMBL • August 2007 • page 2 &cetera EMBL Council • Luxembourg ratifies as 20th member state • Australia to become EMBL’s first associate member descends on • Anne Ephrussi confirmed as Unit Coordinator Hamburg • Detlev Arendt appointed Senior Scientist MBL Hamburg hosted the Summer Council index, the national consumer price index and Detlev’s case being the official faculty repre- Emeeting on 3-5 July this year, during which purchasing power parities, factors which are sentation for the Postdoc Association. “I’ll several important decisions were made. different for each EMBL site. continue to work to improve the curriculum Two new countries have joined the EMBL Council approved the acquisition of an 800 for the postdocs as well as working on new ini- family of member states. Luxembourg ratified MHz NMR spectrometer and a new electron tiatives such as the EIPOD scheme,” com- after being approved at the last council meeting, microscope for cell biological tomography for mented Detlev. “My involvement in the cur- becoming EMBL’s 20th full member state. the EM core facility this year. Some recon- rent EMBL partnership with the Sars Council also agreed to Australia becoming struction on the uphill side of the Heidelberg International Centre for Marine Molecular EMBL’s first associate member at the beginning building, near the current NMR building, will Biology and involvement in organising joint of 2008 (see full story, opposite). be necessary to house the spectrometer. activities with other marine stations has also contributed to this appointment.” As part of Council heard that construction of the The Annual Report 2006-2007 was approved his new job, Detlev will also attend senior sci- Advanced Training Centre at EMBL by Council, and copies have been distributed Heidelberg is proceeding well. Main construc- entists meetings and advise the DG on faculty around the main lab and to the outstations. appointments and promotions, as well as giv- tion started in the second week of June, and by Heidelberg people can get theirs from the the end of the summer up to 80 builders will be ing feedback to him and the Heads of Units on OIPA corridor if they haven’t seen it yet. working on-site. The Dietmar Hopp Stiftung matters of scientific importance. He will also has donated €500,000 for teaching lab equip- In staff changes, Anne Ephrussi has been coordinate the evolutionary module of the ment, and the ATC opening event is scheduled confirmed as the new Unit Coordinator for newly-reorganised predoc course. for autumn 2009. In addition, the multi-storey Developmental Biology (see interview, oppo- “In summary, this was a very positive meet- car park will be increased by two floors to add site). Her appointment was also discussed at ing at which the member state delegates some 200 additional parking places. the recent SAC meeting and received their showed a high level of support for our plans, Construction is supposed to be finished by the unanimous support. and took the important decision that in addi- end of 2007. Another Developmental Biology group tion to member states from Europe and the EMBL staff salaries were adjusted as of 1 leader, Detlev Arendt, was appointed to the immediate surroundings, EMBL should also July as follows: 1.8% in Germany, 2.3% in Italy, rank of Senior Scentist, a position which have formal interactions with some other, and 3.1% in France and the UK. These adjust- reflects the involvement of the researcher in more distant, countries in the form of associate ments are calculated based on a remuneration activities above and beyond leading a group, in membership,” said EMBL DG Iain Mattaj. Photo: Marietta Schupp Marietta Photo: Christoph’s back to front unit hristoph Müller has come home to other methods and technologies of structur- the moun- CGermany after 15 years away to head the al and functional studies. tains,” he says, “and Structural and Computational Biology Unit “One of our first tasks will be to recruit new alongside Peer Bork. coming group leaders to replace the several who have back to Following the departure at the end of last left or are in the process of leaving,” Christoph Germany year of coordinator Luis Serrano to the says. “We’ve already appointed a new NMR after 15 Center for Genomic Regulation in Barcelona, specialist and will be acquiring an 800 MHz years will the former Deputy Head of EMBL Grenoble NMR machine. almost feel like mov- arrived at the start of August to fill his shoes “A major objective is to maintain the inte- as Joint Coordinator alongside Peer Bork. ing to a grative structure of the unit, and in dealing foreign Senior Scientist Christoph was at the out- with the turnover in staff at the moment we’ll country again. I’m sure things have station for 12 years, and as well as heading be looking to make sure that all the spe- changed a lot since I was last here. However, his group, which is interested in the molecu- cialised techniques – cryo-EM, EM tomogra- I’m looking forward to being involved in the lar mechanisms of transcriptional regula- phy, NMR, X-ray crystallography and so on – main lab and the scope it offers for collabora- tion, he was an active and approachable sec- are well maintained and that the collabora- tions.” ond-in-command to Grenoble head Stephen tions continue to make them available to all He brought most of his group with him Cusack. His research combines X-ray crys- users both inside and outside the SCB unit.” and they can be found (still surrounded by tallography and electron microscopy (EM), There are many things he will miss about chaos and half-empty boxes) in room 435. A and in leading the SCB Unit he will be look- Grenoble, but he’s also pleased to be return- warm Heidelberg welcome to Christoph and ing to expand on and improve these and ing to his homeland after so long. “I’ll miss his lab! EMBL • August 2007 • page 3 &cetera Australia University, The University of Western hops on board as Australia, The University of Queensland, The University of Sydney and the Commonwealth first associate Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO). Funding will be pro- vided by the Australian National Collaborative member state Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS) and through contributions made by the participat- ing institutes. What is the difference between full member- he Land Down Under is set to become ship and associate membership? TEMBL’s first associate member state. Only European countries and Israel can During July’s Council Meeting, EMBL’s become full members of EMBL. Other coun- member state delegates agreed to Australia tries might join as associate members for a lim- joining EMBL’s international community.